October 2025: Points of VIEW Newsletter
- Courtney Krone
- Oct 28, 2025
- 3 min read
Left: Dr. Charline Rutagengwa presenting at the 2nd International Wildlife Scientific Conference in Kenya. Right: Dr. David Murenzi collecting samples during his training at The Wilds Safari Park in Ohio.
Advancing Wildlife Health in East Africa
Our programs in East Africa have had an eventful season, full of research, training, and collaboration. In September, Dr. Charline Rutagengwa presented her One Health study, Prevalence of Pesticide Residues in Akagera National Park, Rwanda Using Passive Sampling, at the 2nd International Wildlife Scientific Conference in Naivasha, Kenya. This presentation builds on her fieldwork investigating environmental toxins in the park. Further, Charline presented at the University of Rwanda on Wildlife Disease Risk Assessment, introducing the standardized wDRA framework as a critical tool for proactive conservation. By sharing this approach, Charline's work empowers students, researchers, and policymakers in Rwanda to advance from situational responses to a strategic, evidence-based framework for safeguarding biodiversity.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dawn Zimmerman and Dr. David Murenzi are continuing field training initiatives supported by Conservation Nation. David is spending August through October at The Wilds, a Safari Park based in Ohio, where he got to work with African Wild Dogs, perform dental procedures, monitor drug administration and collect blood samples. Meanwhile, Dawn attended the AAZV Conference in August, and later this month, she’ll travel to Rwanda and Kenya to lead a lab training session at Ol Jogi Wildlife Conservancy. Together with our partners, these efforts continue to expand veterinary capacity across the region ensuring rapid response, better diagnostics, and stronger protection for wildlife health.
Our partners have begun collecting blood and fecal samples from Asian elephants to study EEHV, a deadly virus affecting young elephants.
Elephant Health Update
Our on-the-ground project partners in Myanmar were hard at work conducting elephant field sampling activities. This field sampling is being undertaken for a project on elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) hemorrhagic disease – a potentially deadly syndrome in young Asian elephants. This project aims to better understand the impact of this disease and potential risk factors in the region. Our partners have completed blood sample collection for the cross-sectional EEHV serology study, and have also been collecting wild elephant fecal samples opportunistically. While the virus is not shed very frequently in the stool, using fecal samples is a non-invasive means of studying EEHV in wild elephants that would not otherwise be possible. Sampling will continue through next year.
Next, our partners will turn their attention to collecting samples longitudinally from a cohort of juvenile elephants to capture the timing of development of EEHV antibodies. This study is led by VIEW-supported veterinarian and PhD student Dr. Jenn Yu as a component of her training, and was made possible with support from Morris Animal Foundation through a Wildlife Health Training Fellowship.
Expanding Gibbon Health Capacity Across Asia
Our gibbon health initiative continues to grow through new training and research collaborations. In September, we hosted a Gibbon Health and Rescue webinar, and this month we will host a session on Herpes in Gibbons. We’re also coordinating monthly trainings with regional coordinators and working closely with IUCN’s Section on Small Apes to identify a student to assist with upcoming research projects. A caregiver from the HURO Programme in India is preparing to begin a hands-on internship. These continued training and collaborations represent the next phase of our work, helping build a network of skilled professionals dedicated to improving gibbon welfare and ensuring their safe return to the wild.
This project is made possible with support from the Arcus Foundation.
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